The present invention generally relates to telecommunications and more specifically to a system and method for managing instant message communications.
With the advent of the Internet, users have been provided with a faster electronic means of communicating with each other. For example, instant messaging allows users to interact in real-time communications through networks such as the Internet. In order to enable instant messaging, a user typically downloads an instant message (IM) client for a particular network implementation. Then, the user can communicate through instant messages with another user who has also downloaded an IM client of that particular network implementation.
The network implementations may be classified as commercial (also known as public) and enterprise (also known as private or proprietary) network implementations. Public network implementations allow anyone worldwide with their particular IM client to communicate on their network, while private network implementations only allow IM clients connected to a specific private network to communicate (typically on a much smaller scale, e.g., in an enterprise). Some examples of commercial network implementations include Microsoft (MSN), Yahoo!, America Online (AOL) Instant Messaging (AIM), ICQ, Short Message System (SMS), and the like. Some examples of enterprise network implementations include IBM/Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Exchange 2000, Microsoft RTC, Jabber, and the like. Each of these network implementations includes their own IM client and communicates through their own IM networks.
In an enterprise setting, users connected to an enterprise local area network (LAN) are often able to download any of the public IM network clients in addition to any supported enterprise IM network clients. Thus, users in the enterprise may be instant messaging with other users through private IM clients or public IM clients.
Typically, the instant message communications from users using private and public IM clients connected to the enterprise network occur unregulated. However, one way of regulating users on the enterprise network is the use of packet sniffers, which monitor the users' usage of the enterprise network. The sniffers can collect data and provide reports on the usage of IM networks. While packet sniffers can intercept and store copies of each instant message traversing the enterprise network, the sniffers can only collect data passively and are unable to act upon data captured.